1898 | CURRENT LITERATURE 221 
from the reducing division are not identical, a fact which may help explain 
the difference between descendants of the same parents, —Cuas. ]. CHAM- 
BERLAIN. 
ONE OF THE MOST common requests made of a botanist is to give some 
simple rule by which edible and poisonous fungi may be distinguished. The 
Department of Agriculture has done great service in publishing a bulletin 
upon the subject, to which botanists may refer their correspondents, and it 
could not have done a wiser thing than to secure Dr. W.G. Farlow to pre- 
pare it. The account is very simple and effective and is designed to be a 
sort of primer for the beginner who does not know fungi, but who wants to 
eatthem. The following rules are given for the beginner: 
1. Avoid fungi when in the button or unexpanded stage; also those in 
which the flesh has begun to decay, even if only slightly. 
2. Avoid all fungi which have stalks with a swollen base surrounded by 
a sac-like envelope, especially if the gills are white. 
3. Avoid fungi having a milky juice, unless the milk is reddish. 
4. Avoid fungi in which the cap, or pileus, is thin in proportion to the 
gills, and in which the gills are nearly all of equal length, especially if the 
pileus is bright colored. 
§. Avoid all tube-bearing fungi in which the flesh changes color when cut 
or broken, or where the mouths of the aia are reddish, and in the case of 
other tube-bearing forms experiment with cau 
6. Fungi which have a sort of spider ern or feces ring around the 
upper part of the stalk should in general be avoided.—J. M. C. 
FL. TassI, of the University of Siena, has been investigating the — 
and morphology of the Proteacez, using Stenocarpus sinuatus Endl. as 
type. The results are published in a bulletin of the laboratory, ak iene 
plates, more or less colored. The many interesting anatomical peculiarities 
of the group are plainly set forth in detail. The morphological features 
seem much as usual, at least so far as they relate to the development of the 
microspores and megaspores, and their germination.— J. M. C. 
Marcus HartoG? has suggested recently that the function of chromatin 
in nuclear division may be a mechanical one, and that linin-may be the 
important substance. “The splitting of a viscid thread is one of the most 
difficult mechanical feats to accomplish. Suppose, then, that there is a certain 
polarity about the granules of chromatin, through which, after their division, 
they tend to recede from their fellows as far as possible ; through this they will 
determine a splitting of the filament on which they are strung. The close of 
nuclear division sees their task accomplished ; and, as we should expect, the 
chromatic granules, having fulfilled this appointed task, now atrophy, and 
° Natural Science 13 :119. 1898. 
